Thursday

28th Mar 2024

Opinion

MEPs' shameful support for the Azerbaijan election

  • Baku: geo-political interest in oil-rich Azerbaijan is high (Photo: Sonke Henning)

European election observers announced starkly different assessments of the 9 October presidential election in Azerbaijan.

The OSCE Parliamentary Assembly and the OSCE's Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights (ODIHR) condemned the election, citing the lack of a level playing field, limitations on fundamental freedoms, intimidation of voters and candidates, a restrictive media environment and “significant problems ... throughout all stages of the election day processes.”

Read and decide

Join EUobserver today

Get the EU news that really matters

Instant access to all articles — and 20 years of archives. 14-day free trial.

... or subscribe as a group

At the same time, the European Parliament (EP) and the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (Pace) praised the election and said they observed a "free, fair and transparent" process around election day.

So what accounts for such divergent views by organisations that typically observe in joint missions?

Like other autocrats in the region and beyond, Azerbaijan's President, Ilham Aliyev, seeks a veneer of international legitimacy and calls in pseudo election observers who assess the election positively, regardless of its integrity.

Such observers may be motivated by various interests, political or economic, or even, reportedly, by gifts of Azerbaijan’s famous caviar.

This phenomenon has unfortunately become a typical part of elections in the region, as well as globally. The trend of internationals overlooking a blatantly undemocratic election to cast legitimacy on the incumbent winner is only accentuated in an oil-rich state like Azerbaijan.

But the Pace and the EP are not fake election observer groups deployed to whitewash undemocratic elections.

They regularly send delegations of elected parliamentarians to observe elections and have committed themselves to do so in a credible manner.

Both are signatories of the UN Declaration of Principles for International Election Observers, a document signed by 45 international observer groups expressly to avoid such situations.

The declaration requires observer groups to conduct comprehensive observation, taking into account the entire election process and placing election day into this context.

Indeed, it was the long-term findings of the ODIHR that the EP and Pace disavowed by issuing a separate statement, contrary to established practice.

Such divergent statements from European observers allow autocrats like Aliyev to “cherry pick” the observer statement they prefer, promoting positive findings with their domestic public through docile media, while ignoring the conclusions of more credible observers.

The EP/Pace statement lends legitimacy to a blatantly fraudulent process and undermines the work of domestic human rights activists, journalists and citizen election observers who have criticised it, often at great personal risk.

These kinds of outcomes also threaten the credibility of international election observation as a whole, as it is unclear to domestic and international audiences what accounts for the starkly divergent views, which then seem politicised and arbitrary.

In fact, observer groups like the ODIHR go to lengths to ensure their findings are based on first-hand, objective, verifiable evidence, and the wider international observer community has engaged in the Declaration of Principles in an effort to ensure that international observers base their findings on a credible methodology.

The support of the EP and Pace for a clearly undemocratic election process is shameful, and is an affront to the stated values of those organisations.

Both the EP and the Pace trumpet their promotion of human rights and democratic principles, and the EP passed a resolution in June highlighting concern about the pre-election situation in Azerbaijan.

Voters should ask their elected representatives why they are spending public funds to be cheerleaders for sham elections.

The EP and the Pace should ask whether it makes sense to continue sending such observation missions, which discredit their organisations.

And signatories of the Declaration of Principles should question the EP and Pace on why they have strayed so far from the agreed guidelines, weakening confidence in international election observation as a mechanism for the promotion of genuinely democratic elections.

The writer is the Brussels representative of Electoral Reform International Services (Eris), a London-based NGO which supports democratic governance around the world.

Disclaimer

The views expressed in this opinion piece are the author's, not those of EUobserver.

EU downgrades human rights in Azerbaijan

Azerbaijan is in the midst of a human rights crisis. Federica Mogherini just made things worse by saying its mass jailings of rights activists are “normal differences.”

EU Modernisation Fund: an open door for fossil gas in Romania

Among the largest sources of financing for energy transition of central and eastern European countries, the €60bn Modernisation Fund remains far from the public eye. And perhaps that's one reason it is often used for financing fossil gas projects.

Why UK-EU defence and security deal may be difficult

Rather than assuming a pro-European Labour government in London will automatically open doors in Brussels, the Labour party needs to consider what it may be able to offer to incentivise EU leaders to factor the UK into their defence thinking.

Why UK-EU defence and security deal may be difficult

Rather than assuming a pro-European Labour government in London will automatically open doors in Brussels, the Labour party needs to consider what it may be able to offer to incentivise EU leaders to factor the UK into their defence thinking.

Column

EU's Gaza policy: boon for dictators, bad for democrats

While they woo dictators and autocrats, EU policymakers are becoming ever more estranged from the world's democrats. The real tragedy is the erosion of one of Europe's key assets: its huge reserves of soft power, writes Shada Islam.

Latest News

  1. Kenyan traders react angrily to proposed EU clothes ban
  2. Lawyer suing Frontex takes aim at 'antagonistic' judges
  3. Orban's Fidesz faces low-polling jitters ahead of EU election
  4. German bank freezes account of Jewish peace group
  5. EU Modernisation Fund: an open door for fossil gas in Romania
  6. 'Swiftly dial back' interest rates, ECB told
  7. Moscow's terror attack, security and Gaza
  8. Why UK-EU defence and security deal may be difficult

Stakeholders' Highlights

  1. Nordic Council of MinistersJoin the Nordic Food Systems Takeover at COP28
  2. Nordic Council of MinistersHow women and men are affected differently by climate policy
  3. Nordic Council of MinistersArtist Jessie Kleemann at Nordic pavilion during UN climate summit COP28
  4. Nordic Council of MinistersCOP28: Gathering Nordic and global experts to put food and health on the agenda
  5. Friedrich Naumann FoundationPoems of Liberty – Call for Submission “Human Rights in Inhume War”: 250€ honorary fee for selected poems
  6. World BankWorld Bank report: How to create a future where the rewards of technology benefit all levels of society?

Stakeholders' Highlights

  1. Georgia Ministry of Foreign AffairsThis autumn Europalia arts festival is all about GEORGIA!
  2. UNOPSFostering health system resilience in fragile and conflict-affected countries
  3. European Citizen's InitiativeThe European Commission launches the ‘ImagineEU’ competition for secondary school students in the EU.
  4. Nordic Council of MinistersThe Nordic Region is stepping up its efforts to reduce food waste
  5. UNOPSUNOPS begins works under EU-funded project to repair schools in Ukraine
  6. Georgia Ministry of Foreign AffairsGeorgia effectively prevents sanctions evasion against Russia – confirm EU, UK, USA

Join EUobserver

EU news that matters

Join us